Bus falls into gorge; ten gravely hurt in Jayashankar-Bhupalpally district

Jayashankar-Bhupalpally: It was a providential escape for at least 63 people onboard when the bus in which they were travelling swerved off the road into a gorge near PV Nagar of Malhar mandal in the district on Wednesday.

While 10 of them have sustained grievous injuries, the others escaped with minor bruises. It's learnt that all the passengers are out of danger.

The mishap occurred when a bus of Godavarikhani depot was heading to Bhupalpally. According to the passengers, driver P Srinivas Reddy was speeding the bus when the incident took place.

They alleged that the driver was focused on consuming gutkha, a tobacco product, when the bus had just crossed Manair bridge. Seeing a lorry coming from opposite direction at that point, he was confused and lost control over the wheel. He swerved the bus off the road to avoid head on collision thus ending up in a roadside gorge. The bus overturned before it landed in the gorge. After, the mishap, the driver fled from the spot fearing backlash. The police are yet to caught him.

Superintendent of Police R Bhaskaran, who rushed to the spot, took stock of the situation. The police shifted the injured to government hospitals in Kataram and Mahadevpur. The grievously injured passengers were shifted to the MGM hospital in Warangal.

Jayashankar-Bhupalpally District Collector Vasam Venkateswarlu visited the injured at Kataram and Mahadevpur hospitals. Apprised of the information that the duty doctor Uma Devi was not present when the injured were shifted to the Kataram hospital, the Collector issued memo to the doctor. He also issued memo to Mahadevpur hospital superintendent Vasudeva Reddy, who was absent without leave.